Oleg Vernyayev

Oleg Yuriyovych Verniaiev (; born 29 September 1993) is a Ukrainian artistic gymnast. He is the 2016 Olympic parallel bars champion and individual all-around silver medalist. Verniaiev is also the 2014 World parallel bars champion, the 2015 European individual all-around champion and the 2017 European individual all-around champion.

He is a three-time Olympian, having represented Ukraine at the 2012, 2016, and 2024 Olympic Games. He missed the 2020 Olympic Games due to a doping ban resulting from having tested positive for the banned substance meldonium in an out-of-competition test in August 2020.

Personal life

Verniaiev was born in Donetsk. He was educated at the Donetsk State Institute of Health, Physical Education and Sport.

Verniaiev resides in Kyiv. He is coached by Gennady Sartynsky.

Gymnastics career

2011–2012

During the 2011 Summer Universiade Verniaiev competed in the men's vault final, finishing in seventh with a score of 15.262. He was also part of the Ukrainian team that finished fifth in the men's team final. At the 2011 World Championships he competed in the team all-around event with Nikolai Kuksenkov, Vitaliy Nakonechnyi, Oleg Stepko, Igor Radivilov, and Roman Zozulya, finishing in fifth. He scored 14.461 on floor, 13.866 on pommel horse, 14.833 on vault, and 13.800 on parallel bars.

Verniaiev finished sixth in the 2012 American Cup with a score of 88.132. At the 2012 European Championships he participated in the team all-around final for the Ukrainian team that finished in fifth. He also made the parallel bars final, finishing in second place with a score of 15.66, 0.1 points behind the winner Marcel Nguyen of Germany.

He was victorious in the all-around final of the 2012 Ukrainian Championships, scoring 90.300 points and winning by a margin of 2.65 points over second place Oleg Stepko.

Verniaiev competed at the 2012 Olympic Games in the men's team event alongside Nikolai Kuksenkov, Vitalii Nakonechnyi, Oleg Stepko and Igor Radivilov. In the team final Ukraine finished in fourth with a score of 271.526, missing out on a medal by less than 0.2 points. Ukraine was initially awarded third place for a bronze medal; however following an appeal from Japan over a pommel horse score, the Japanese team was awarded an extra 0.7 points, allowing them to move from fourth place to second, knocking Ukraine out of the medals in the process. Verniaiev finished eleventh in the individual all-around final with a score of 88.931.

2013–2016

Verniaiev won the Ukrainian National Championships in 2013. He took the silver medal in the individual all-around finals at the 2013 American Cup. He won the bronze medal in the individual all-around at the 2013 European Championships in Moscow, Russia.

At the 2013 Summer Universiade, Verniaiev led his Ukrainian team (Igor Radivilov, Oleg Stepko, Petro Pakhnyuk, and Maksym Semiankiv) to a second-place finish in the team final, and qualified for the all-around final. He won the all-around bronze medal (tied with Russian gymnast David Belyavskiy). He won another bronze medal in the parallel bars final.

In May 2014, at the 2014 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, Verniaiev contributed scores of 15.100 (floor), 14.400 (pommel horse), 14.900 (rings), 14.783 (vault), 15.591 (parallel bars), and 14.600 (horizontal bar), helping Ukraine win the team bronze medal with a total score of 262.087 points behind Great Britain. In event finals, Verniaiev won the gold medal on the parallel bars (15.966) and won the bronze medal on vault (14.916).

He won gold on the parallel bars at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China. After the wrong anthem (the anthem of Uzbekistan) was played during the medal ceremony, he said "It was written in my face that I didn't like it. They came up and apologised for the anthem and promised to change it for TV broadcast. But I thought it would be incorrect, because I screwed up my face and it will be even worse if the anthem is replaced."

Verniaiev won the 2015 American Cup in Arlington, Texas with a score of 90.597, 0.499 over silver medalist and 2013 World Championships all-around silver medalist Ryōhei Katō of Japan. Verniaiev also became the FIG World Cup series champion. At the 2015 European Championships Verniaiev won the individual all-around with a score of 89.582, beating 2013 champion David Belyavskiy. He also qualified to the parallel bars final where he won the gold medal with a score of 15.866. At the 2015 European Games, Verniaiev was part of the Ukrainian team, winning silver in the team final behind Russia. Verniaiev qualified into the all-around, floor exercise, pommel horse, vault, parallel bars, and high bar finals. He won the all-around final with a score of 90.332, and the vault final with a score of 15.266. He placed sixth on floor exercise with 14.233, and fifth on pommel horse (13.833), parallel bars (14.633), and high bar (14.900).

At the 2016 European Championships Verniaiev won a gold medal on vault and a silver medal on parallel bars. In August 2016, at the 2016 Olympic Games, he won the silver medal in the men's all-around competition with a score of 92.266, only 0.099 behind Kōhei Uchimura's 92.365. Verniaiev's Olympic all-around medal was Ukraine's first since Alexander Beresch won bronze at the 2000 Olympic Games.

Verniaiev also gained prominence for his public apology over the Ukrainian squad's strategy during the team final, when due to injuries they did not put up gymnasts on all events, effectively ruling the team out of contention.
He won the gold medal on the parallel bars, scoring 16.041, giving Ukraine its first gymnastics gold at the Games since 2004. He also finished fifth on vault and eighth on pommel horse and horizontal bar.

2017–2020

At the 2017 European Championships Verniaiev won gold medals in the individual all-around and on the parallel bars, and a bronze medal on vault.
At the 2017 Summer Universiade, Verniaiev won the gold medal in the individual all-around competition, and won silver with the team and on vault and pommel horse, and won the bronze medal on rings. At the 2017 World Championships Verniaiev won silver on parallel bars behind Zou Jingyuan.

At the 2018 World Championships Verniaiev once again won silver on parallel bars behind Zou.

In 2019 Verniaiev competed at the European Championships where he placed seventh on pommel horse and eighth on parallel bars. He next competed at the 2019 European Games where he won gold on parallel bars, silver in the all-around and on pommel horse, both behind David Belyavskiy. At the 2019 World Championships Verniaiev won bronze in the all-around behind Nikita Nagornyy and Artur Dalaloyan.

Verniaiev began 2020 competing at the American Cup, where he won silver behind Sam Mikulak. The remainder of competitions in 2020 were either canceled or postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Doping and ban

In December 2020 Verniaiev was notified by the International Gymnastics Federation that he was provisionally suspended from competition, backdated to November 2020. The reason for the suspension was a positive test for meldonium, which was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency starting in January 2016. Following arbitration, the provisional suspension was upheld and Verniaiev was banned from competition for four years. During this suspension timeframe Verniaiev would miss both the 2020 Olympic Games (rescheduled to 2021) and the 2024 Olympic Games.

In July 2021 Verniaiev expressed his intention to appeal the suspension to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, contending that meldonium was not found in subsequent tests. He acknowledged the presence of the drug in his body, but said he does not know how it got there.

On March 14, 2023, Verniaiev announced that his appeal was successful and the CAS reduced his ban to two years, resulting in his ability to return to competition immediately.

Post-ban gymnastics career

2023–2024

Verniaiev made his return to competition in September 2023 at the Mersin Challenge Cup where he won gold on parallel bars and silver on pommel horse behind Ahmad Abu Al-Soud. He competed at the 2023 World Championships where he helped Ukraine finish twelfth during qualifications. Although they didn't qualify to the team final, they qualified a full team to the 2024 Olympic Games.

Verniaiev competed at the 2024 European Championships alongside Nazar Chepurnyi, Illia Kovtun, Igor Radivilov, and Radomyr Stelmakh; together they qualified to the team final in first place and individually Verniaiev won silver in the all-around behind Marios Georgiou. During the team final Verniaiev contributed scores on all six apparatuses towards Ukraine's first place finish.

Verniaiev competed at the 2024 Olympic Games alongside Chepurnyi, Kovtun, Radivilov, and Stelmakh. During the qualification round he helped Ukraine qualify to the team final and individually he qualified to the all-around, pommel horse, and parallel bars finals. During the team final Verniaiev contributed scores on all six apparatuses towards Ukraine's fifth place finish. He finished eighth in the all-around, fifth on pommel horse, and eighth on parallel bars.

Competitive history

Olympic results

2012 London Olympics

2016 Rio Olympics

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Verniaiev, Oleg
1993 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Donetsk
Gymnasts from Donetsk Oblast
Ukrainian male artistic gymnasts
Armed Forces (sports society) sportspeople in Ukraine
Olympic gymnasts for Ukraine
Olympic gold medalists for Ukraine
Olympic silver medalists for Ukraine
Olympic medalists in gymnastics
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Gymnasts at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Gymnasts at the 2015 European Games
Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
European Games medalists in gymnastics
European Games gold medalists for Ukraine
European Games silver medalists for Ukraine
Summer World University Games medalists in gymnastics
FISU World University Games gold medalists for Ukraine
FISU World University Games silver medalists for Ukraine
FISU World University Games bronze medalists for Ukraine
Medalists at the 2013 Summer Universiade
Medalists at the 2015 Summer Universiade
Medalists at the 2017 Summer Universiade
European champions in gymnastics
Ukrainian sportspeople in doping cases
Doping cases in gymnastics
Recipients of the Order of Danylo Halytsky
21st-century Ukrainian sportsmen
Gymnasts at the 2024 Summer Olympics